US, Romania break ground on missile defense system

Romanian army personnel stand next to the US and Romanian flags during the inauguration ceremony of the location for installing US anti-missile shields at Deveselu air unit, some 240 km southwest of Bucharest on May 3, 2011. (AFP Photo) / AFP

The US and NATO have begun revamping a military base in Romania which will be a crucial part of the American-led anti-missile shield in Europe. The NATO missile defense system remains a bone of contention in US-Russian relations.

Romanian President Traian Basesku and US Under-Secretary of
Defense for Policy James Miller attended the groundbreaking
ceremony for the Aegis Ashore missile defense system at Deveselu
military base in southern Romania on Monday.
"Construction of the base in Deveselu, as noted by [US] Minister
of Defense Chuck Hagel, has begun despite a lack of mutual
understanding on the issue with Russia," Romania's Minister
of Defense Mircea Dusa said.

Dusa said Romanian construction workers were first tasked with
converting the former Air Force base, and then the US campaign to
install the missile defense systems would begin.

Earlier this month, Pentagon spokesman George Little said the
“system represents an important component of the larger European
Phased Adaptive Approach and is expected to be operational in
2015."

The issue of the US missile shield in Europe has been a
longstanding bone of contention in Russia-US relations. Moscow
has demanded legal guarantees from Washington that missile
defense systems deployed in Europe would not target Russia's
strategic nuclear deterrence capabilities. Washington has refused
to grant Russia such assurances, citing a need to protect Europe
from ‘rogue states' like Iran and North Korea.

"We are ready for a constructive dialogue with the US and NATO
and are open to finding a compromise, but let's not pretend that
the incessant talks that there is nothing within the scheme of
the American-led ABM that needs to be changed, nor that it’s not
against Russia, that all this talk can somehow settle
things,” Lavrov said.

Lavrov said Russia is interested in strengthening all aspects of
strategic stability, regional stability the neutralization of
threats through political and diplomatic means.

Earlier this month, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said
there is yet to be mutually beneficial cooperation between Russia
and NATO on the issue of the missile defense program, as not all
the security concerns of Russia are being taken into account by
its partners.

A bilateral agreement to deploy missile interceptors inside
Romania was signed at the Pentagon one day after the 10th
anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The planned interceptors include
the land-based SM-3 ballistic missile defense system.

Romania’s participation in the NATO missile defense system will
constitute the second phase of the European Phased Adaptive
Approach (EPAA), which initially consisted of four stages.

On September 17, 2009, however, US President Barack Obama
announced that the planned deployment of long-range missile
defense interceptors and equipment in Poland and the Czech
Republic had been scrapped, and that defense against short- and
medium-range missiles using AEGIS warships would be deployed
instead.

The first part of this revised system – an early warning radar
station in Malatya, Turkey – went operational in January 2012.
Apart from Romania, other elements of the system will be built in
Portugal, Poland, and Spain.